Royal Enfield Himalayan 650
We’ve always anticipated the arrival of a Royal Enfield Himalayan 650, and now we can offer you the first images of the motorcycle. Captured by Stefan Baldauf, the 650 Himalayan was recently spotted undergoing testing in Southern Europe
While I am quite a fan of the charismatic Royal Enfield parallel-twin engine, it is clear it was never designed as an engine for some sort of desert racer and that the Himalayan will not be a competition-oriented machine. I can also guarantee that will not hurt its popularity one iota.
Both the previous generation Himalayan and the current Himalayan have proved hugely popular, and so will the new 650 Himalayan, which thanks to expansive bodywork will lend itself to more comfortable long-distance touring.
This test mule is loaded with extra sensors as it goes through engineering and durability testing. It also looks to have fully-adjustable inverted forks, which may, or may not, make it through to production. However, this motorcycle does appear to be almost production ready so what we see, we will probably get…
A fairly upright monoshock rear with linkage promises decent suspension performance and suggests that this is an entirely new chassis.
The Royal Enfield Himalayan 650 test mule is shod here with a 19-inch front and 17-inch rear, as is par for the course for most adventure machines.
A twin-disc front end with Bybre calipers promises ample stopping power, moreso than we have ever seen from Royal Enfield.
The seating arrangement looks pillion-ready with a stepped second seat, while the riders seat looks low and fairly well padded.
The Royal Enfield Himalayan 650 looks to be very much a sit-in type of all-roads bike, complete with a reasonable amount of weather protection from the generously sized almost rally-tower-style front cowling that is more than a little Norden-esque. It could be said that this is the progeny born from a DR650 and Norden copulation…
As seen on the current Himalayan model, the rear lights are integrated into the indicators.
The parallel-twin in other models produces 47 horsepower and 52 Nm of torque, so we can expect much the same from the Royal Enfield Himalayan 650. The headers and high-mount muffler are new while the oil cooler is located differently than we have seen before. There are rumours that this could be a slightly larger big-bore version of Royal Enfield’s parallel-twin, it also could just look that way due to larger cooling fins that are designed to help the engine regulate its temperature better in low-speed running.
It is hard to gauge tank size, but at a guesstimate, it would appear to be 15 litres or more, which would provide a touring range of more than 300 kilometres.
Instrumentation appears to be a new TFT complete with gear position indicator.
No doubt we can expect to find out more about the Royal Enfield Himalayan 650 in the new year. One figure many will be waiting on will be the ready to ride weight. My guesstimate is that it will be 15-20 kg heavier than the 450 Himalayan, putting the Himalayan 650 around the 215 kg mark.
